My week thus far

I think that one of the biggest reasons that I don't post more often here, is that I just don't think that my life is worth reading about. And then I kick myself. Most of the blogs that I keep up on are other mommy-blogs where the writer posts about their daily lives. It might seem strange, but I'm pretty isolated, and these blogs help me know that I'm not alone. They help a lot. So... here's my life this week so far:

Monday was a fun day. J has off work on mondays, so any preggo-related appointments are usually scheduled for then. We had our biweekly midwife appointment in the morning, and met with a different midwife in the practice than we normally do. We intend to have our favorite midwife attend the birth, but there is a chance that she might be out of town or someone else might have to step in, so we need to start meeting the other midwives so there are no surprises. Although all the midwives in the practice are AWESOME (!!!), we really do have our hearts set on our favorite! Anyways, the visit went really well, weight gain, blood pressure, iron count, and measurements are spot on and the baby is SUPER active. Seemed like she was fighting back against the midwife!

      After the midwife visit, we went home and rested for a little bit, and then headed back out to the same area to go to a 7:00 PM hospital orientation class. Apparently it's required in order to use the Alternative Birthing Rooms. They were AWESOME! In Illinois, midwife attended home births are illegal, and there are no real birth centers, so midwife attended Alternative Birthing Centers inside of hospitals are the only alternative to a full O.B. attended hospital birth. The rooms are fantastic though, they have a queen size bed, a private bathroom and shower, a birth tub, birthing ball, birthing stool-thing, TV, fridge, microwave, etc... etc... I'd almost say that it'd better than birthing at home, with all the stuff that's there and the fact that you don't have to worry about any messes later on. Also, for my first preganancy and my blood pressure issues, there is some comfort in being in the hospital.
       The hospital visit ended with J locking the keys in the car and having to get a super-awesome security guard to help him break in. Luckily we don't care too much about his crappy old car. After that, we went out with some friends to a local Denny's and tried to pretend that we are still young and hip and can stay up late. I almost fell asleep in the booth. It was fun to see people, and these are some of our favorite people, but I've been so tired since becoming pregnant.

Tuesday I managed to not leave the house AT ALL. J was at work for most of the afternoon/evening, and I managed to finish crocheting the baby cocoon that I was working on and start on a baby blanket :-) unfortunately I think I still need 3 - 4 more skeins of the yarn I'm using to finish the blanket (I had intended to make something small and simple out of it, and changed my mind at the last minute). I'll have to take pictures of the cocoon to post here, but I'm not sure it'll register so well without a baby in it. It's basically a safer blanket, it's made like a hat, but you slide the baby in feet first. It is used to swaddle the baby comfortably and keep her from hitting herself in the face.

Yesterday J worked again, but this time had a morning shift. I worked on the blanket some more, and watched Precious for the first time. I  had read the book Push, by Sapphire, in college and was amazed at the honesty and courage in the book. I have to say, I was not let down by the movie! Plus, in the special features, they went through and explained why they changed some of the things that they did (most of the reasoning was just so that it would make it into theaters, if they had all the horrific scenes straight from the book, it would NEVER have been seen by so many people). It was also great to see the author talking about her work.
      After J got home from work, we went out to dinner with some friends. Treated them to some delicious Chinese food and LOTS of tea ^.^ I'm a tea freak, but that's a topic for another post. It was fantastic and really refreshing. I've been feeling super-isolated with the pregnancy, and even though none of my friends are also pregnant and all my parent friends live too far away for random visits, visiting with this group is fun and refreshing. Oh, and did i mention Chinese food, cause that's important! It was delicious.

Today is aiming to be a pretty full day. We have some errands to run, including the trip to JoAnns to get more of that awesome yarn for the blanket and dropping off a check for our health insurance. Then we have to stop at my MIL's (Mother In-Law's) house to drop something off and to help my BIL (Brother In-Law, you get the idea) make a blog of his own. After that it's onward to my first birthing class! I'm super excited to be learning from an awesome doula who's totally connected online. We've chatted a couple times via facebook, and I always love reading the links she posts to current birth and pregnancy-related articles. I'm really excited for the class and can't wait to meet some other preggo women and discuss some very important and controversial topics.

WooHoo! Wasn't that a FUN look into my life!